Tuesday

But while sales were higher, store owners paid a price for offering low prices. And some stores that saw their sales rise over last year actually made less money in the process.

The National Retail Federation says sales have been better than last year, when they declined 3.4 percent over 2007 levels. And because retailers were prepared for shoppers to spend less this year, they provided themselves a cushion, said federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis.

"The discounts that we are seeing now are planned, and are not the type of unplanned panic promotions or sales that we saw this time last year," she said. "Going into this holiday season, they cut back on inventory, which lessened a lot of their business costs, and they maintained a steady level of staffing instead of hiring the number of staff they may have had even two years ago."

Both sales and profits for the holiday season at Outdoors in Chester are up about 20 percent over last year, said owner Barry Adelman. He attributes it to good marketing, word-of-mouth from satisfied customers and the customer club, through which members get 30 percent off all year 'round.

Bob Maxwell, owner of Style Counsel in Warwick, doesn't offer his big post-holiday sale until mid-January. Even so, when he crunches the numbers, he thinks overall sales for the holiday season will be a little better than last year. But higher profits? It's too soon to say.

At Thruway Shopping Center in Walden, sales seem on pace to be up about 3.5 percent over last year, said vice president Bruce Concors, but he doesn't know yet whether that means the business actually raked in a similar profit.

At Pisces Passions in Sugar Loaf, owner Ada Hunter offered some clothing for 10-30 percent off, but thinks she'll still finish the holiday season below last year.

"It's because the big-box stores are giving away their stuff," she said. "It's ridiculous. I can't compete with a big-box store that's able to get merchandise at really low prices because they're able to order a lot more than I can."

Sales volume and profits are up at some stores in the Galleria at Crystal Run, partly because of those major discounts, said marketing director Kimberly Harrison.

So what happens when the recession is over? Now that shoppers have seen such huge sales, will they be reluctant to go back to paying full price?

"I would be," Hunter said. "It really starts to make you wonder about how they mark things up."

Sales will return to normal; there will just have to be a weaning process, Grannis said.

"Through 2009, people were only buying essentials. But eventually that level of discretionary spending will increase," she said. "It always has throughout history. People will go back to treating themselves."

clivermore@th-record.com

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